Heart of the Forest (Arwn's Gift Book 1) (22 page)

Yowling like a forest cat I came, clawing down my body as I arched back far enough to feel the water on my scalp. Aneurin steadied me with a hand on my neck to stop me from drowning myself as I continued to contort in his lap. My whole body tingled, and it was like it was before in the rain. I could feel just so much flowing through me. I whipped my head forward, and the water from my long hair swept across the door, making a sound like rain as I clung to Aneurin and he continued to work me with his thumb, determined to make my pleasure last.

“That’s it, Dy’ne. Show him that you’re really just a fucking animal,” Yorwrath growled, his voice heavy with lust and half broken by pants. I looked up at him as I continued to tremble with pleasure. He slowly pulled at his shaft as it glistened with his nectar. His gaze on me was intense, and those red eyes alone made me shiver.

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you,” Aneurin sighed. He slid his hand up and blocked Yorwrath from my gaze. “Pay him no mind,” he whispered, bringing my attention back to him. My body still fluttered around him as aftershocks of my climax still rocked my body. Aneurin wrapped a hand around my waist and stood, holding me to him. He carried me to the bed and laid me down on the feather mattress. I was too exhausted to move as he withdrew from me. “I love you,” he whispered in my ear before kissing me deeply. Sometime during that kiss my body gave up, and I passed out while still trembling.

* * * *

When I woke the tub was gone, and so was Aneurin, but Yorwrath was still there. He lay on the bed beside me, naked on his side. In sleep, all those hard lines melted away, and he had that boyish look to him that Aneurin did. I glanced down and found myself still naked. Groaning, I slipped from the soft warmth of the bed and looked around for my clothes. I found them in a small neat pile on the vanity. They smelled faintly of soap; someone had laundered them while I slept.

“Go back to sleep, Dy’ne,” Yorwrath grumbled from the bed, his voice thick and slow with sleep.

“Where’s Aneurin?” I asked as I started to dress. I was unbearably sore. Every motion made the area between my legs ache enough to make me wince.

“I don’t know, and I don’t plowing care.”

“Some brother you are,” I snarled as I pulled on my boots.

“Brother enough to watch him fuck you, Dy’ne.”

“But still not good enough to touch me.” I smirked as I left.

In the outer room, Grwn was sharpening his sword. He nodded to me with a small smile. I returned the gesture and continued out onto the stairs. The soft echo of whispered speech could be heard. I followed those muted sounds up to the top of the tower, to a rooftop garden. It was sometime after midday, and the sun was harsh. I squinted against it as I looked around the lush foliage. It took me a few moments to realize that among the flourishing plants was an amphitheater of sorts that ringed the garden with a white altar at its center. The white stone was stained with blood in multiple places. This was where they sacrificed to the gods and where Yorwrath was conceived. Aneurin was seated on the altar next to Islwyn, and opposite them was Caoilfionn in white riding leathers, his long white hair braided over his shoulder. Even in riding leathers he still looked neither male nor female. The conversation stopped when they saw me, and Islwyn scowled. But Caoilfionn actually bowed his head to me.

“I trust your sleep was restorative?” Caoilfionn said with a grin, as Aneurin looked off to the side at the nearby fountain that poured sparkling water into a carefully decorated basin.

“Why do I feel like I missed something?” I asked, furrowing my brows as I tugged my still damp hair over my shoulder.

“We did this.” Aneurin gestured around to the garden.

“We?” I quirked a brow.

“When you lie with your king, whilst he is inside of you it isn’t just your body’s secret places he caresses, but also your gift. Once we awaken the last part of his gift, and he learns to control it, this should stop happening.”

“Good to know.” I pursed my lips as Aneurin raised his green and brown gaze to me. He looked sad, so sad I couldn’t stop myself from walking over to him. I wanted to pull him into my arms and turn the frown on his lips. Islwyn stopped me at the last moment, stepping between us and shoving me away from Aneurin hard enough that I landed on the marble tile with a thud. Aneurin grabbed Islwyn by those pretty blond curls and threw him to the ground. Islwyn glared at Aneurin and he, in turn, pointed at his friend, narrowing his eyes for a moment before turning back to me.

“For the next few days they’ve suggested I have limited contact with you. In case I do something…worse.” Aneurin sighed crossing his arms.

“Worse than growing a few fucking flowers?” I growled from the floor.

“It was more than growing flowers, Valentina. This garden isn’t half of what you two did last night,” Caoilfionn said, as Aneurin slipped from the altar.

“I’ll be at the horses. The sooner you two finish this, the better,” he called over his shoulder, as he disappeared back into the temple. Islwyn followed him, leaving me to pull myself to a standing position on my own.

“It’s for your protection.”

“Lovely. So which angry elf that hates me will I be riding with?” I glowered at Caoilfionn.

“None, you’ll ride me.”

“I thought unicorns only accepted virgins on their backs.”

“That is myth, entirely. We usually choose our masters and mistresses when they are children.”

“Who’s your master or mistress? Aneurin?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“Mhm. Why is that hard to believe?”

“I am nobody, that’s why.”

“No, you want to be nobody. Like Aneurin wants to be nobody. The only difference is he realizes on some level there is no running from who he is, and you still cling to impossibility.”

“I don’t like you.”

“One day I hope to change that.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ll have need of me.”

“How can you be so sure?” I glanced down at my reflection in the great silver pool, and I moved my hand to that large polished amethyst at my throat.

“It’s my duty to know. Like how I knew when you’d arrive here, and how I knew what to take from the herbal for you. And how I know that there will come a time when the fleshly court will all share your bed willingly.”

“The fleshly court?”

“The king, the knight, and the druid will share the queen.”

“That’ll be the day.” I snorted.

“I also know that the prospect excites you. But you can hide behind your words if you wish. Deep down we both know I speak the truth of things.”

The vein in my eyelid twitched as I stared at him. Eventually, I turned on my heel and walked down into the temple without another word. I wouldn’t dignify what he said with a response. When I reached the landing Yorwrath was stepping out of the room. I shouldered into him as hard as I could and continued on my way. He cursed at me in the elven language, and I snarled.

At the bottom of the never-ending stair, Aneurin stood beside Ys, checking the saddlebags. My leather satchel was full and at the bottom of the stair, and next to it were a sword, an ornate oak bow, and a quiver full of arrows. I looked through the bag; it was full of herbs and ointments that were carefully labeled. After I closed the satchel, I realized something was off.

“This wasn’t something I intended to do,” Aneurin said, as I stood and looked around.

“Well…fuck.” I hissed under my breath as I realized the entire city was no longer a burned-out ruin. The buildings and pathways had almost been totally reclaimed by the forest. The only things untouched were the tower and a few pieces of granite sticking out of the foliage here and there.

Caoilfionn trotted up then in his horse form. There was even a saddle on his back, and part of me wondered where it came from, and then I remembered he was a creature I had thought only a myth yesterday. He probably turned his clothes into the saddle. I strapped the sword across my back and pulled on my satchel. Oh, I certainly didn’t trust him anymore after he dropped that little bomb on me by the altar.

The others had mounted their horses, and I was still staring at Caoilfionn with my lips pursed. I didn’t want to ride the stranger, and a thought crossed my mind that made me cackle. Every time you rode a horse you were riding a stranger. And just like that, I ruined horseback riding for myself forever.

“I think your Dy’ne has finally snapped, Aneurin.” Yorwrath sighed. Caoilfionn stamped his hoof at me, and I shut my eyes tight and pulled myself into the saddle. If he were just any horse I’d have my hands in that thick shining white mane. But I’d essentially be pulling Caoilfionn’s hair, those long thick tresses I had seen tossed over his shoulder an hour before.

“This is just weird. I’m sorry, but this is just fucking weird,” I said between peals of laughter. Maybe I had lost it. Caoilfionn stamped a bit, jumped, and bucked a little. The sudden movement forced me to grab out for his mane to stop myself from falling.

He took off without any urging, but as he dashed through the forest and my thighs pressed tight to his sides all I could think of was that I was riding on Caoilfionn’s fucking back. If I used a crop, I’d be smacking Caoilfionn’s bottom with it. When I tugged his mane, I was pulling his hair. If I stroked his neck in appreciation…I was stroking a virtual stranger’s neck. In short, I would never ride a horse again.

In no time at all, we reached the entrance to a cave, and Caoilfionn stopped. I jumped from his back as fast as I could. As the others reached us, he changed form in a flash of white light that left spots in my vision. Suddenly he was standing before me as that all-white elflike creature. He had a stave in his hand made of white wood with a gleaming diamond atop it.

“Treat me like any other horse,” he said with a soft chuckle. I was still laughing.

“Sure, right, sure.” I stretched.

“When I’m in my other form, I greet horses like a horse, and they accept me as one of their own. You should too.”

“No promises.” I beamed at him as at the edge of my vision Aneurin dismounted. He walked over to me and stopped short, but I could see the tension in his shoulders. He wanted to pull me into his arms. instead, he blew me a kiss, and I returned it with a weak smile. When Islwyn arrived, I glared at him. Yorwrath and Grwn came up last. The second he dismounted his eyes narrowed.

“Fuc—” Yorwrath started.

“
Coblyn
,” Aneurin said, his eyes sweeping the area outside the cave. “I can see the carcasses.”

“Goblins?” I asked, raising a brow.

“More or less, only three times more likely to eat us raw,” Yorwrath commented with a grin.

“Stop being dramatic,” Aneurin grunted.

“Fine, equally as likely to eat us alive.” He spat on the ground at his brother’s feet and walked toward the cave entrance. “And exactly how do you expect us to see in there?”

“Caoilfionn will illuminate the cave with his magic,” Islwyn stated plainly.

“And draw all of the plowing coblyn right to us… Fantastic. If I get eaten alive during this ritual, I am going to make sure the next Swynwr feeds all of you to coblyn…except for Valentina,” Aneurin grumbled, sounding dangerously like Yorwrath. “Well, let’s get this over with.” He exhaled audibly as he walked into the mouth of the cave. Caoilfionn followed close behind. He whispered to the crystal on his stave and it blazed to life like a small sun. Yorwrath, Grwn, and I drew our swords before entering the cave. Yorwrath glanced back at me with a small look of reassurance.

The cave reeked. It smelled like all the worst kinds of rot covered in shit and topped with vomit. My stomach was uneasy before the entrance was out of sight. The deeper we went into the cave, the worse the smell got. After a few moments, it was clear that the cave used to be more than a cave. There wasn’t a door, but in some places rough wooden supports remained, and in corners there were cracked and discarded earthenware jars. By the time my eyes were watering from the smell we stopped. We stood in the middle of a massive chamber. The walls had ornate forest scenes carved onto them all the way up to the ceiling, which was domed. At the center of the dome was a large jewel of some sort. It glinted oddly from the light of Caoilfionn’s stave. Directly below the jewel was a granite altar.

“Take off your tunic and lie on the altar,” the unicorn instructed.

With a heavy sigh, Aneurin stripped off his tunic and shirt with a nervous glance to me. Islwyn pulled a jar of ointment out of a pouch on his belt and rubbed it over Aneurin’s chest. Then he took Aneurin’s clothes before taking salt out of another pouch, sprinkling it while walking a circle around the altar, speaking elven speech the entire time. With Islwyn’s voice came a knocking on the walls of the cave, and the stench thickened. Caoilfionn raised his arms, and braziers throughout the room that had been hidden in the dark sprang to life. He walked into the circle of salt and spread his arms wide over Aneurin’s form. Those mismatched eyes focused on me, and we stared at each other… Something deep inside me said this was a bad idea.

“Salt is protection. Nothing that means him harm can cross the salt,” I chanted almost inaudibly as I stared at Aneurin. Five crystals on the walls instantly lit up: the main jewel of a king’s crown, the crystal at the top of a druid’s stave, the hilt of a warrior’s sword, a keystone above a tower’s entrance, and a purple jewel at the throat of a lady with a circlet. The large crystal in the center of the ceiling flashed with light, temporarily blinding us, and that ominous knocking grew louder and louder.

“Valentina!” Yorwrath screamed my name. I didn’t see why until it was too late; I was too preoccupied with the fact that Aneurin wasn’t staring at me anymore. His eyes were focusless, and his chest had stopped moving. I didn’t have the luxury of time to react to that, as a squat, small, brown creature with a crude loincloth, long vicious claws, and sharp snapping teeth sailed through the air and attacked me. The horde of coblyn clicked as they moved, and that deep, ominous, echoing, clicking noise made me shiver as I kicked the tiny creature across the cave. A moment later there was another as a sea of coblyn swarmed around us. The salt held, and Aneurin with his unseeing eyes and still chest was safe—but we weren’t. Yorwrath darted between me and the wall of coblyn, slashing at the tiny hide-clad creatures. “
Gwaedlyd gwirion,
Dy’ne!” Yorwrath spat at me as he grabbed me by the hair and threw me behind Grwn. They kept me safe in a corner, as a mountain of foul-smelling tiny corpses started to grow before us.